Where to get free Wi-Fi in Russia

July 24 2013

Ksenia Shvetsova

specially for RIR

Twenty-five percent of Moscow’s secondary educational institutions currently have their own Wi-Fi networks, and, by the next academic year, all of its schools should have free Wi-Fi. Source: PhotoXPress

Internet access is increasingly available on public transport, in parks, and in colleges and universities.

Russia has a population of 147 million people, 57 million of
whom are internet users. According to data from 2010, one in three of those 57
million uses their mobile phone or another mobile device to connect to the
internet, making 19 million people potential subscribers to a service which
would connect them to a free Wi-Fi network. Most of these 19 million are
concentrated in cities with populations of over one million people. And it is
in these cities that the market for free Wi-Fi services has been burgeoning in
Russia’s since 2011.

According to data from
wifi4free.ru, Moscow has the most Wi-Fi hotspots of any Russian city with 1413,
of which 1178 are free (leaving 235 paid). The capital owes its position in no
small measure to its well-developed network of restaurants and hotels, even
though other cities’ free Wi-Fi is concentrated primarily in service
establishments as well.

There are, however, other areas where free Wi-Fi has spread,
such as in educational institutions, public transport, and green areas – parks,
squares and other open, public spaces.

Free Wi-Fi in buses

The Moscow City Government began testing Wi-Fi on buses and
trolleybuses in July 2011. Today, free internet access is available along
several routes between Zelenogorod and Moscow. It was originally launched as a
six-month project, but by the end of the original timetable, plans had been set
to ensure free internet access on all of Moscow’s buses and trolleybuses,
though the project has not yet been finished.

MTS’s main competitor in the market for equipping these
vehicles in Russia’s cities with Wi-Fi is Beeline. “Projects for providing
Wi-Fi on public transport are being carried out in Murmansk, Kaliningrad,
Petrozavodsk, and St Petersburg, where we have equipped Wi-Fi routers on more
than 300 vehicles in total,” Beeline spokeswoman Anna Abasheva said.

In most cases, the conditions upon which city administrations
agree with service providers do not bring in a profit; companies set up free
internet access on public transit at their own expense, and in return they
receive free advertising space on-board.

Free Wi-Fi in the metro

Another ambitious public-transport WiFi project is that of
ensuring free internet access in Moscow’s underground system. This undertaking
demands especially serious investments from the service provider(s) who would
prepare and maintain it; estimates vary from 1.6 billion roubles (almost $50
million) to 7 billion roubles (over $216 million), prices potential investors
are in no hurry to pay.

The auction for setting up Wi-Fi across the city’s
underground system has been postponed twice already: the first one began on
December 21, 2012 and was supposed to end on January 15 this year, but the
closing date was extended to January 28, and then to February 4. But when the
auction did close, not a single offer had been submitted; the media cited low
potential payoffs in the face of exorbitant costs as the cause.

An Interfax source in Moscow’s transportation industry reported
that a new competition for setting up Wi-Fi in the metro will be held on July
26. The winner will have to have Wi-Fi running on the ring and Kakhovskaya
lines within 21 weeks of the day an agreement is reached. Officials promise
free Wi-Fi in all metro stations within a year.

Interestingly enough,
MTS has already had success in equipping a subway system with Wi-Fi: the
service provider has already set up wireless internet access on (albeit four
out of 14 of) Nizhny Novgorod’s metro stations.

Wi-Fi in green spaces

Fourteen of Moscow’s parks have free Wi-Fi, and all but Gorky
Park (whose Wi-Fi is run by the company Yota) have been equipped therewith at
the city’s expense. Megafon runs its own free networks in parallel with the
city’s in 12 of the parks.

Projects for setting up free Wi-Fi in open spaces are being
carried out in other regions as well. MTS offers free Wi-Fi at ski resorts in
the Sakhalin and Novgorod regions. The city of Oryol’s administration covered
the costs of setting up routers in two city parks; this year there should be
free Wi-Fi in several squares in Ufa; and in Tyumen, a free Wi-Fi network
consisting of 54 hotspots was unveiled all at once. The hotspots are located in
popular locations throughout the city: railroad stations, public squares, by
sport and recreational complexes, and health and educational institutions.

Wi-Fi at educational
institutions

Proponents are lobbying for free Wi-Fi at Russia’s
educational institutions at the federal level.

Twenty-five percent of Moscow’s secondary educational
institutions currently have their own Wi-Fi networks, and by the next academic
year, all of its schools should have free Wi-Fi. MGTS (Moscow City Telephone
Network) has a two-year contract for equipping Moscow’s primary and secondary
schools with Wi-Fi networks, as well as for filtering content by limiting
student access to sites with illegal and adult content.

The capital is also
considering equipping its universities and institutes with Wi-Fi, with the
costs coming out of the municipal budget. Moscow mayor Sergey Sobyanin promised
that free Wi-Fi could be ready in the main buildings of Moscow’s universities
in as little as two years.

Some Russian regions
are solving the problem of installing Wi-Fi in educational institutions by
attracting communications providers. For example, VimpelCom took it upon itself
to set up Wi-Fi in several colleges and universities in Ulyanovsk and Nizhny Novgorod.
In Nizhny Novgorod’s case, however, free internet access was included only for
students who use Beeline.